Old Races

From TheManaWorld

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1 Races in the Mana World

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Races in the Mana World

With this page I'll try to make people think and discuss about possible races in the Mana World and how this might influence gameplay. Apart from the players and monsters will there be other intelligent races? Like natives living in small villages or maybe with more advanced kingdoms of a non-human species. And will the player be able to play with other races then the current one. If so these races should be humanoid, I think we'd all agree on that. Their body shape should be the same. The things that could vary are skin color, mayb some fur, a tail (drawn separately) or some ears (also drawn separately, maybe together with the species hairstyle). We could also change the shape of the head and maybe the feet, so helmets and footwear might have to be changed for certain races. This way we could make a humanoid cat, wolf, bunny, lizard race, elves and orcs or something different. And if the player can choose his race, how mutch does this have influence on the game for him. Does it only change his appearance and start location? Or do races also have skill bonuses and penalties. Like being swift or being able to breathe under water. Modanung 14:35, 5 August 2006 (CEST)

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Race suggestions

Here you can put your ideas for races in the Mana World.

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Half Demon

In the past it happened from time to time that humans and demons had sexual intercourse. The result where Human/Demon hybrids that are infertile but live much longer than ordinary humans (300 or 400 years). Demons consider them inferior mortal beings and not worth more or less than other races. Humans accept them as a part of society but usually distrust them.

Appearance: Purple skins, small horns, tail (when possible)
Behavior: Their demonic side makes them easy to anger but they can usually control their emotions. Because they are often confronted with racism and feel like social outcasts they are usually distrustful and bitter.
Gameplay Abilities: Their ancestry gives them a bonus on offensive and dark magic at expense of a malus on holy and defensive magic.

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Espers

Espers are a race of psychic gifted individuals. Their eyes are blind but they sense the world around them with their psychic abilities. They can also percept other planes of reality and try to find ways to interact with them through mental exercises.

Appearance: Pale skin tone. Their eyes are half closed and have grey pupils.
Behavior: Espers are arrogant and consider themselves above other races. They spend a lot of time meditating and "talking to other planes" what they often consider more important than other problems. It may happen that the party is attacked by monsters but the esper just sits down and meditates because something interesting happens on another plane.
Gameplay Abilities: A bonus on learning magic and a higher magical defense because they can intuitively sense the mana. But because they can percept the "real world" much worse than others they have a malus on evading physical attacks. No natural HP and MP recovery but a "meditate" skill that allows them to regenerate much faster than others although they can't do anything else while meditating. When we use a line of sight system, espers should have different rules to represent their different form of perception.

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Opinion on races

Here you can tell your opinion about having races in the Mana World.

I would suggest to stay away from fantasy clichés and not use races like dwarfs or elvens but to invent our own races. They might have similarities to the classical fantasy races but have some original features.--Crush 15:17, 9 August 2006 (CEST)

I wanted to make a race of human-ants and someone (don't remember who) opposed. This is the artwork:

I wanted it to be a small town in the forest, with a lifestyle based on natural resources and coexisting with nature. --Pajarico

Then why don't you add it to the list above? --Crush 16:57, 23 August 2006 (CEST)

I didn't add it because I knew someone was against it. Elv, you were indeed. Your fear is about (new races) being unable to use graphics from the current playerset and its items, right? If it's that, you have a point about compatibility. But above that, I don't agree about player being able to select *every* race. The way I see it, basically, we front two roads: 1.- we decide to let players choose every race in the world but at the cost of limiting the variety of races 2.- we let players choose only human (or a few selected races) but add other varied races as NPCs (without the constraint about compatibility). I prefer the 2nd as it lets more freedom for the NPCs while does not stop us from adding new playable races later. --Pajarico 16:07, 24 August 2006 (CEST)

I agree with Pajarico not all races have to be playable. Some species may be intelligent and you can talk and trade with them. But they're probably a quite simple race, who live in semi-isolated villages with simple huts or in caves. Or they might be slaves for the dominant races or entertainment in circuses. Modanung 17:44, 24 August 2006 (CEST)

Are you thinking about some mascot race like the Moogles that appear as supporting characters in various Squaresoft games? I would really like to have something like that. I wonder if anyone can come up with a good concept for one. --Crush 19:45, 24 August 2006 (CEST)

Yes, I think that's exactly what I mean. :) Modanung 18:05, 25 August 2006 (CEST)

I was probably the one against non-humanoid races. Something that stays too much away from the current playerset for height, width or body shape is not feasible until we want to keep a race as pure npcs. In my opinion if we want to have races, each player should be able to choose every humanoid race in the world (except special cases). --ElvenProgrammer 11:02, 24 August 2006 (CEST)

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